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British Court Rejects A Hacker’s Plea Against Extradition

A British computer hacker, facing Washington's accusation of committing the most severe military hack till date, lost his plea on April 3, 2007 against his extradition to the United States for trial.

Gary McKinnon, 41 is accused of gaining unauthorized access to at least 100 government systems over the period, February 2001 and March 2002 causing loss of around $700,000. This is one of the biggest Internet attacks on the government of United States.

Two leading British judges rejected McKinnon's High Court challenge to a court order that he should be transferred to a foreign country. One of the judges, Lord Justice Maurice Kay said in a statement that the court did not find a significant point of support for the appeal. Reuters published Kay's statement on March 4, 2007. The court said it found McKinnon's conduct intentional that intimidated and coerced the U.S. government. His conduct resulted in damage to computers crumbling their ability to operate programs, systems, information and other data eventually rendering them unreliable, Kay said.

According to McKinnon's lawyer he would proceed to the House of Lords, which is the highest court in Britain.

McKinnon's lawyers argued against McKinnon's transfer to the United States saying that it would mean a breach of human rights. So McKinnon shouldn't be extradited if it was sought with the objective of putting him to trial due to his nationality or views on politics.

McKinnon known as "Solo" has acknowledged of hacking U.S. government systems but did not agree having caused the damage. He said he accessed the computers to seek evidence that U.S. was trying to hide the UFOs that were in existence. Marinecorpstimes.com published McKinnon's statement on April 3, 2007.

District Judge Nicholas Evans added that McKinnon saved notes on the PCs expressing criticism of U.S. foreign policy.

If U.S. convicts McKinnon then he could face punishment of prison for up to 70 years and up to $1.75m in fines.

Just after September 11 2001, McKinnon launched one attack in which he targeted the New Jersey's Earle Naval Weapons Station.

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